Here's a collection of vero (stripboard) and tagboard guitar and bass effect layouts that we have put together covering many classic and popular effects in growing numbers. Many of these have been posted on freestompboxes.org, so check that site out for great discussions on building your own effect pedals. Enjoy the builds and please also visit us on Facebook and Twitter

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Monday, 9 July 2012

Seamoon Funk Machine V2

The FUNK MACHINE is a synthesizer that can be used with any amplified musical instrument. Bass Guitar ... Guitar .. . Fender Rhodes ... Harmonica ... Horns .. . Clavinet.

The FUNK MACHINE is primarily designed for use with Bass Guitar, but you will find that all other instruments will work very well. On Bass Guitar you get a sound that Is heard everywhere in recording these days. The unusual sounds coming from the Basses of Larry Graham, Sly Stone, Tower of Power, and Stanley Clarke are characteristic of the sounds of the Funk Machine.

On Guitar the FUNK MACHINE gives an effect similar to a WA WA pedal, the difference being that the FUNK MACHINE is electronically triggered by the players attack on the strings as opposed to the mechanical and foot action on the WA WA. The FUNK MACHINE gives a fender Rhodes a sound similar to a Clavinet, but because of the very low output of the Rhodes in some cases the signal generated by the piano is not strong enough to trigger the FUNK MACHINE on the extreme high notes on the piano.

Unlike most control knobs that are associated with electronic apparatus the FUNK MACHINE does not get its best effect by turning both controls to their full on position. In fact the FUNK MACHINE would get its worst effect by doing so. To get the best results read the instructions carefully.

1. Turn both controls on the FUNK MACHINE off.

2. Turn the volume control on the instrument to its full on position.

3. The FUNK MACHINE is voltage controlled meaning that the harder the note is struck the greater the FUNK EFFECT. Bear this in mind because as you adjust the controls you are as much responsible for the sound as the FUNK MACHINE.

4. Strike a low note on your instrument in a repetitive manner, (Bass Guitar "D" string, Guitar "A" string). At the same time you arc striking a low note on your instrument in a repetitive manner slowly turn the FILTER RANGE control clockwise until the FUNK EFFECT is heard. Remember that the further the FILTER RANGE control is advanced, as well as how hard the note is being struck determines the amount of effect.

5. It you play Bass Guitar the FREQUENCY SHIFT control will move the range of the FUNK MACHINE into a lower frequency range that will easily accommodate the open "E" string on a Bass Guitar. A little experimenting with the FREQUENCY SHIFT and the FILTER RANGE control will yield great results.

6. NOTE FOR BASS GUITAR: The FUNK MACHINE can be used as a sub-harmonic bass filter which will cleanly lower the bass response by two full octaves. To accomplish this simply turn the FILTER RANGE control off and use the FREQUENCY SHIFT control only.

7. Unplug the unit when not in use to increase battery life.

A helpful hint for the FUNK MACHINE as well as your other effects is to use a Y cord from your guitar into the second channel of your AMP. By splitting the signal you don't loose any of the natural response from your AMP while using effects.

Demo of the V1 Funk Machine without the Frequency Shift conrol, but should still give you a good idea of what to expect.

I was reading something Mark Hammer wrote about the circuit where he basically said that a 5M was unnecessary because the additional resistance gave you an unusable sound and that he wouldn't use larger than a 1M and suggested the 390K to replace the 47K. I also read someone who had taken the advice and used a 1M with a 330K and said it sounded great, so I thought I'd stick with that as an alternative.

You can get B5M pots though if you really want them, a UK eBay seller has them for £1.99.

I'm getting sound when I pull the trannie out, but when I put it back in it has a high pitched squeal. When the transistors out the freq knob sweeps thru fine and the depth knob isn't doing anything. Tried a few different transistors with the same results

I think you've got the 5 to 8 numbering the wrong way round, pin 8 would be top right and should be the 8.35V reading, pin 5 is bottom right and is direcly connected to ground so should be 0V. The voltages look a little high. Can you post a front and back pic of the board? Also what transistor and IC did you use?

There are a few people building this today Brett so just give it a couple of hours or so until someone else reports back then it will give us a better idea if your problem is duplicated. I've been over the schematic and I'm fairly sure it's right, but I have made the odd faux pas in the past so you never know! :o)

I seem to have the same symptoms as Brett. I used the same IC and transistor, and a 360k together with the 1M pot. With the transistor in it just sounds like a weak white noise with a resonant filter on it when you sweep the frequency. My voltages seem similar:

1 - 4.292 - 4.293 - 4.264 - 05 - 06 - 5.827 - 8.098 - 8.84

Transistor:E - 0B - 0.63C - 0

I already took the knife out, and have reflowed everything.Hope this helps?

I have had similar problems with this, i'm using Tl072/5088 and 1m pot with 390k. I'm getting a hiss, the frequency of which can be controlled with the frequency pot but no signal and the depth pot doesn't seem to do anything.

WDC and Holyver, I'm gonna pick your brains after 2 years since your post. Were you ever able to get this circuit to work? I've built it up and am also getting a hiss that changes with the frequency knob but not the depth knob. Thanks.

Hey IvIark, I'm a bass player. I'm very hot under the collar to build this, but I'm thinking a blend knob may be a good addition instead of the recommended Y cable. What value pot would you recommend for this?

alright, that makes sense. so the send and return would be the input and output of the funkmachine circuit, and the in and out of the splitter would go the the 3pdt, yes? and I could run both of these off one single 9v input as well, right?

Yes it would easily fit in a B box. The blender board is only small so stick that on one of the sides somewhere and mount the Funk Machine as usual. You'd still only need 3 pots total so it shouldn't be a problem.

sweet. I'll have to start posting pictures of the builds I make. I've been using clear-shaft pots with LEDs as well as light plates, and if I can fit another small daughterboard in this enclosure I have a pretty good idea for the status indicator.

That's used for power filtering, and it does not affect the signal path. As you can see, the schematic uses only battery. Now, if we replace the battery with cheap or otherwise wonky wall wart, there's a good chance to get badly beahving variance affecting how the effect works. It's just good practise to use one large cap between power source and ground to filter out any interference.

Like i said, it really doesn't affect the sound in any way, so if you want, you can omit it. I tried this circuit without it while debugging, and it doesn't matter if it's there or not - when using battery.+m

In the SFM thread on FSB you could see in a gut shot that the cap was 47n not 4n7 so it must have been a mistake on the schematic. And the row the emitter is on is ground, so that 10u is from IC pin 3 to ground.

Ok. Singal travels nicely through 50K pot and all the way to pin 7, but there's no signal on pin 2, which i think is quite important. Voltages with battery at 9.09 and both pots at max:4.09, 4.08, 3.33, 0, 0, 2.33, 7.46, 8.18e:0, b:0.62, c:0

I can see it's not healthy.. I'll check again for brigdes and other usual suspects.+m

Someone did a PCB on FSB and at least a couple of people built it successfully, whereas one person had whistling which I presume is what you're experiencing. The only difference that I can see tracing it through is that the voltage divider on pin 3 is a 47k to ground and 47k to 9V as opposed to 470k to ground and 470k to 9V in the schematic and this layout.

I think i cracked it. The guilty party here seems to be - wait for it - the opamp. I'll go through every dual opamp i have, but so far i had best results with HA17458 with 2N5088. I'll keep on swapping..+m

Nice one Miro, maybe the FET inputs for that opamp make biasing more difficult (you should be used to that! :o). The LM1458 should be a good alternative to stick to bipolar input and output stages of the opamps.

Got it to "work" with NE5532 and MPSA13. First off, the opamp still doesn't bias right. It sounds wrongly biased, just like FF with trimpot at the louder end. The transistor seems to control the speed that the synth wave slaps back, so MPSA13 works. 2N5088 and anything lower makes the synth sweep too slow - Meaning that the attack is way too slow.

Maybe the opamp could benefit from a trimmer?

I wouldn't go so far and call this yet, since it sounds nothing like in the demo. It sounds just like wrongly biased gain stage can sound - bad.+m

LM1458/2n5088 combo works for me, not exactly like the demo but that may be down to the frequency pot, seems to just darken it and suck tone. sounds funkin cool with the frequency full up but the depth pot has a decent range although not all of it usable.

That's to be expected too. In the instructions it says that unlike other effects the fully clockwise position isn't the best sound, in fact it says it's the worst. So by the nature of the beast it sounds like there are limits to the useful rotation of both pots.

great call on the 1458! the TL072 wasn't working at all for me. my 5088's haven't come in yet so i'm using an NTE123AP and it's working pretty well. i also changed the listed 47n output cap to a 4n7 to match the schematic. it sounds pretty close to my original but it has more click/clack when it triggers and the envelope seems to sweep faster than i remembered it.

That's funny about the output cap, but it's got me thinking. In the original diagram the 33K resistor is shown as a 13K, so I'm wondering if those values were correct for the version originally traced by RG, and the correction made by Analogguru was simply a change to the circuit in a later model? I think if the output cap sounds right at 4n7 then it's definitely worth swapping that resistor to 13K (or 12K) just to see how it affects things.

okay. until my 5008's get here, i tried an 2n3904, a 2n2222A, an NTE123AP and an NTE123A. the 2n3904 works pretty well (it has less quack) but it doesn't sweep as high of a freq. so, it appears that to get this one right, it's going to need the perfect tranny or at least bias one perfectly for it.

nope. the TL072 didn't work at all for me. it's almost there but IMO, it still needs some transistor tweaks. the 5532 wasn't as good as the HA17458, but all of my versions of the 1458 work about as well as the HA17458.

BTW, i tried a 13K instead of the 33K and it didn't work well at all (it wouldn't trigger the envelope). i also tried a 22K ( and that was muddy/dull sounding), so, for me, the 33K was the best one so far.

I had (what I consider to be) better results with a 1458 & MPSA14 than I did with 1458 & 2n5088. Both configs worked, but the effect was louder with MPSA14, but the unit was more responsive to pick attack (& quacky I guess) with the 2n5088. That said re; the volume, it was only a case of backing off the depth to achieve desired volume, but with the MP, depth could be cranked full without loss of volume. But yeah, VERIFIED

i just got my 2n5008's and tried them in it and it's pretty much the same as with the other trnasistors that i've tried (too quacky for me). so yes, the circuit certainly does work, but i'm not personally going to call it 'verified' until it sounds like the original which wasn't so harsh on the attack. IMO, it needs just a bit more fine tuning. YMMV.

Hi guys I've been following the thread with some interest as I'm going to try to make one for the bass player in our band. From what Milkit has described the MPSA14 compared to the 2N5088 I'm thinking of trying a 2N5089, as from my experience it is just acts like a louder 2N5089 (I have subbed it in my Keeler Pull and COT50 builds succesfully before). I need to order the chip and then build the pedal to confirm the differences (I do have some 2N5088 to compare). If anyone who has made this has one at hand to try in the meantime, can they let us know how they get on.

Do you mean the transistor type John or gain? I did a layout a month or so ago for a Fuzz Face with paired transistors with controllable gain via a trimmer so you can set it exactly as you want it. I'm wondering whether something like that would be useful for this so you could test while fine tuning the actual gain?

i think it needs the correct type. i've tried quite a few of them (2N3904, 2N222A, 2N5088, NTE123A,, NTE123AP, 2N3906) and all of them work (some better than others) but the quack is obnoxious and way louder than the original. i'm not sure if it's the gain that that's the issue but it might be. i'm going to order some 2N3565's from smallbear since that's what they used in the originals (and as well as 40006's) and the originals didn't have anywhere near this much quack. from what i understand the 2N3904 is supposed to be a good substitute for the 2N3565 but maybe not in this particular circuit.

When i was playing around with this, i noticed that hfe of the transistor mostly affects the attack speed of the envelope. With 2N2222 and lower hfe transistors, the attack part of the envelope sweep was just too long, while it started to get "normal" with BC109/2N5088 and higher.+m

i just tried an MPS14, an NTE46, an NTE47. none of those got rid of the quack issue but the NT46 was the best one so far. i have some NOS fairchild 2N3565's coming from smallbear so we'll see how they do. keep in mind that i'm using mine with a p bass. it may not quzck as much with a guitar, but my mid 70's original worked great on both all of guitars and all of my basses.

i just got my NOS fairchild 2N3565's in today and so far, it's the best transistor in it for me yet, so i guess it's time to build the encloure for it. i've tried a bunch of different 1458's (and some 5532's)too. the 5532's didn't work well at all in mine, and some of the 1458's weren't much better (weak and distorted). my favorite 1458 so far is a national semiconductor LM1458N

i was wondering, although it 'shouldn't make a lick of a difference, but i wonder if there was a reason for dual 741 layout. it seems that the direct dual opamp replacement for a single amp LM741 is the LM747 so i'm going to try one of those next.

I always considered the LM1458 to be a dual channel version of the LM741 and hadn't even heard of the LM747 until now. It seems to have more features and is a 14pin DIP, but I'll be interested to hear how it sounds if you try it.

well, i'd have to make a whole new one since the LM747 is a 14 pin chip, but the 747 is a TRUE dual 741, whereas the 1458 really isn't. supposedly, the LM358, LM258 and LM2904's are said to be much closer to an acutal 741 only a dual in an 8 pin dip format so i'm going to try a bunch of those next beofre i attempt a new build.

i must've tried 8 different 1458's today (and from different manufacturers-- TI (three versions), national semiconductor, hitachi, SFT, ON electronics and fairchild) and they all sounded different, some better than others, so i'm willing to try a bunch of 358's, 258's and 2904's just to see if it helps, since i know that i have the correct transistor for it now (the same one that they used in the originals)

no. not yet. my original one worked great with a bass stock, but i'm willing to try it on this one, although it is triggering the envelope just fine with the 2N3565.i just ordered a whole bunch of different chips for it: LM358's (various brands & #'s), LM2904's (various brands & #'s), LM258's (various ones)and even an LF244 to try in it, since i have a feeling that a closer match to a true LM741 might be the ticket to making it sound the way that it should. mine's pretty good right now, but i think that it could be even better.

That's a lot of IC's to try! Let us know which comes out the best. I'm making this with the 100R resistor socketed as I will try from 47R up to 1K to adjust the sensitivity of the way the envelope works. Also the 2M2 for the same reason. The 10ufs socketed so can try 0.1uf to compare. This is only going to be used on one guitar in our band and I will adjust it to work best with the lipstick pickups it has and how our Bass player plays. So to recap so far, you are using the original 5m pot with the 47k resistor, a 2N3565, and national semiconductor LM1458N?

yep, i have 2n3565, a national semi LM1458N and a 5M freq pot. it's pretty good, but it could be better. i'll unsolder my caps in install sockets for the 10uf's and see if lowering their value helps tomorrow.

okay. now we're getting somewhere. lowering the values of the caps reduces alot of the quack, but lowering the 2nd one too much makes the output too distorted and grainy. i've tried .1uf's,.22uf's, .47uf's, 1uf's, 2.2uf's, and 4.7uf's and i might be able to get it where i want it by substituting different valus in the two locations. i haven't tried changing any values of the reistors yet but i might socket a couple of the those too.

From my reading the resistors control both when/how the envelope opens (the type of pickups you are using might have affect here - active or not etc - on what is right for you).

The 2M2 can be increased to 2M7 to increase overall sensitivity. The 100R when increased will become more sensitive but adjustment is only useful up to 1K. It will decrease as it is lowered but only going down to 47R is suggested.

This is all anecdotal stuff I've noted down from the internet and not my own experience

i'm using a passive, stock '62 p bass (pretty much the standard as far as basses go). i socketed the 2M2 and tried a 1M5, 3M, 3M3 and it was all pretty much the same so i'm going to stick with the stock 2M2. i'll try changing the 100R one next.

and yes, by the 2nd 10u cap, i mean the one on the right. about 4.7u is as low as i would go on that one.

SUCCESS! i read on th FSB forums that these pedal are improved greatly with a buffer run in front of it, so i placed it after my direct drive that has a split 'n' blend in it. that way, by setting the direct drive's blend control to 'dry' i could A/B it with and without the buffer by clicking the DD's bypass in & out. IMO, the FM's wah effect got 10X better with the buffer, and much of the hard quackiness was alleviated. my circuit in the funk machine is stock, i.e. no resistor or capacitor changes, with the exception of running a 3M3 reistor in place of the 2M2 one, and installing a a split 'n' blend in it. i actually think it not only sounds like my early 70's original, but even better, plus, now that i can blend in some of the original signal, it's even more flexible. i highly recommend this one for bass.

here's a of pic of the completed pedal:http://johnkvintageguitars.homestead.com/Effects/AutoWahs/01-Funkmachine-clone.jpg

....and wouldn't you know it? i just got 18 different dual 741 type op amps from mouser today (LM358's LM258's, 2904's etc), but it sounds so good now, i have no need to even try them in it!

IMO, the buffer and the blend bring the pedal up to the 21st century. i have an EH enignma Q balls and an MXR M82 envelope filter, and while they're both really nice pedals, i actually like the seamoon with the blend better than both of them. ;-)

Sounds great John glad you cracked it! I see only two jack sockets on your pedal. Have you just wired the send and receive wires straight to the input and output of the SFM? Did you put a buffer in there as well, if so what kind - an IC one like the Klon or Jfet like the Cornish?

yeah. the pedal is awesome now with the blend/buffer. the split n blend is actually a dual jfet buffer, so that's what i used. i didn't use any send/receive jacks, but instead just hardwired into the pedal. here's a pic of the inside of the pedal to show what i mean:

I thought about it for some time, but i think that using TL072 or other "normal" dual opamp would always need bias power supply that provides 4,5V and 9V voltages - the one with two 10K resistors and one 4µ7 cap. Schematic of this has only place for 9V supply, so that seems to be the reason why nothing else apart from LM1458 doesn't work.

Ok, so I'm really new to this but am itching to try to build it, so please go easy on me. If anyone is patient enough to help me, here are my questions:

1: I don't understand the off-board wiring. I think it has 1 input, 1 output and 1 pot. The input and output would have (2?) wires each and the pot has three terminals for a total of 7. Other than the power and ground, I only see 6 wires coming off the board. And I have no clue where they go???

2: Specs for the pot? I know this should be common knowledge for a pro, but I have no idea.

3: What is the EBC?

4: Q1 - 2N5088? The diagram has the 'Q1' off of the board. Where does it go?

1) Have a look at this, it will show exactly where the input, output, 9V and ground wires from the board should go and will also explain the pot lug numbering:

http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/offboard-wiring.html

2) The specs for each pot is shown in the notes, and so for instance the Filter Depth Range pot is 50K linear.

3) EBC shows the pinouts of the transistor (emitter, base and collector).

4) Q1 is just an offboard identifier label for the transistor you can see above it. It's probably not necessary for a 1 transistor effect, but comes in handy when more than one transistor is used, particularly if the transistors are different types and/or have different pinouts.

In first thank you and sorry for my English(i'm french ^^ . I made funk machine with a ne5532, a BC550 and 1n4004 diode. When I play bass with and the funk machine, when the effect snaps the sound level decrease. If someone can help me thank you. Another question, the "100R" is a 100 ohm resistor?Thank you in advance for your help

This does not work for me. I used MC1458 and 2n5088, also 330k with 1M for Frequency. I get a hum sound and the frequency knob changes the tone of hum but I get no input sound from my guitar at all and depth knob does nothing. I did connect depth 3 to input with daisy chain. Seems like this should not be listed as verified being so many people are having problems with it.

Do you think it's more likely that everyone who has successfully built it just imagined it was working, or the few people who have a problem have made an error of some sort or are using an incompatible or faulty part?

I'm currently building this with exactly the same parts mentioned, except for the diodes which I will be using 1n4004's instead of 1n4001's. Will they be suitable?l'm also wondering whether to use the 390k or 330k resistor with my B1m pot but am guessing it wont make too much difference, yes, no?

Verified!Worked first attempt. Used the 1m pot with 390k resistor. Also used 1n4004 diodes instead of 1n4001's. Gives a bit of a popping sound when hitting notes harder but is a decent sounding auto wah overall. I think the popping sound is something you get with auto wahs in general.I'm guessing that maybe people who've had trouble with this build might be forgetting to use the 390k instead of 47k when using the 1m pot, or possibly getting their 4n7 and 47n's mixed up. I'd say double check these 2 things as well as the frequency pot connections.Definitely a worthy build. Great fun to play and get funky with.A big thanks to Ivlark for putting this diagram up. I had a lot of fun with this build

I build the sfm and double checked all components (4n7 and so on).The effekt cuts the mid and lower tones but doesn´t do anything more :/I measured the voltages at the IC and the Transistor:4,154,154,04004,071,948,81E 0B 0,35C 0Thanks for help!!!

Third time building this, same results. The input signal reaches output but sounds slightly lower and with high end cut. No auto-wah sound as advertised. I subbed out the top-left 47K with a 390K and used a 1M linear pot for Freq. I've built many pedals, but this is the first that has consistently not performed as expected after three builds.I've tried subbing the transistor w/MPSA13 and a TL072 IC. No dice.

A number of people have asked me to do a build guide for one of these effects, but I noticed the other day that one of the guys here (timmy)...

Note

Not all these layouts are verified and some are put together from unverified schematics. So if you have good luck, or bad luck for that matter, then please let me know by dropping a comment in the topic. Thanks.

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